This group was one of my earliest forays into instrumental rock along with Explosions in the Sky (EITS). I first started dabbling in this stuff during my music renaissance about seven years ago (that’s when I discovered Pandora). I no longer actively pursue new music via Pandora because it had such a one-time broadening effect on my musical tastes that I can discover stuff on my own via friends now. Or, ah, via Amazon.
Yep, this album popped up in a targeted add from Amazon during a $5 sale and I just clicked “buy with one-click” like a fool. I’m not disappointed that I did so because it’s pretty cool stuff, but it was probably a superfluous buy. By that I mean that it will sit in my “instrumental” playlist which I’ll shuffle often when I’m working. It won’t hit the regular album rotation.
This group hit me when I started putting EITS into Pandora after seeing the movie Friday Night Lights. This Will Destroy You (TWDY) started popping up consistently, as did Pelican. I bought TWDY’s first album called Young Mountain. They’re just about all instrumental but a little more funkier than EITS. They layer in some digitized background sound behind the guitars, drums, and keyboards. They also toss in some vocal stuff. It’s not necessarily background vocals, it could just be people talking (I even once thought I heard a death metal style grunt).
It’s difficult to pick out a best song. That’s just not how I listen to most of these instrumental-only artists. I rarely pay much attention individually to songs unless it’s Pelican. I have plenty of instrumental stuff to last me for awhile so I need to be more selective in the future.
Cool note: these guys are from San Marcos, Texas, a neat small town about 50 miles northwest of San Antonio. I’ve actually been to this town before and had some great doughnuts at this little shop called Dixie Cream Doughnuts. I’m just keeping track of my doughnut life. That’s not too abnormal, is it?